“Mindblowing”: The gig that changed Lemmy’s life
The late Motörhead leader Lemmy knew what he liked. In addition to pioneering speed metal with the frenetic trio, the Stoke behemoth lived a life of storied proportions, which saw him tour the world and rub shoulders with a host of renowned figures.
Bringing this wayfaring essence into focus, even before forming Motörhead in 1975, he had lived a life that would have been enough to write a compelling tome about. Working a slew of odd jobs when a teenager and figuring his path out, he was bit by the rock ‘n’ roll bug in the 1950s and performed in several groups in the early part of the next decade, as he immersed himself in the exciting world of the genre, motorbikes, and by his own admission, female attention.
In 1967, Lemmy left his group The Rockin’ Vickers and relocated to London, just as rock was getting psychedelic and the counterculture was capturing the minds of his generation. He’d made connections in his previous outfits, and in the capital he shared a flat with The Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding and influential road manager, Neville Chesters. It wouldn’t be long before he secured a job as the roadie for the American pioneer and his scintillating rhythm section.
Unsurprisingly, this was a consequential period for Lemmy. It included Hendrix telling him he would never be a good guitarist, a point, which in tandem with a spot of fortune, would lead to him picking up the bass in Hawkwind when joining in 1971, a convergence which set the scene for him to rise as an icon in his own right. Even at this early point, Lemmy had experienced and achieved things that most do not.
In terms of experience, Lemmy witnessed the rock ‘n’ roll explosion first-hand. Despite his later status as a metal titan, he was always a lover of rock ‘n’ roll in its purest form. Famously, when slamming contemporary guitar acts Radiohead and Coldplay for being “not rock bands”, he asserted that he knew the genre better than most due to his longtime love of it.
He said: “I mean, they did some good stuff. Fair enough. But it’s not rock ‘n’ roll. I know fucking rock ‘n’ roll when I hear it. I’ve been listening to it since I was 12, you know? So fuck off!”
To be fair to Lemmy, he was right. When he was 16 and immersing himself deep in the world of rock ‘n’ roll, a formative moment was when he saw the Beatles perform at their legendary hometown haunt, the Cavern Club in Liverpool. Enamoured with the caustic slant of the quartet and leader John Lennon, he would later compare them to their London counterparts, The Rolling Stones. He characterised the Fab Four as a band from a hard port city that always delivered on stage, unlike “the mummy’s boys” Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the rest of their band from the London suburbs.
Yet, years before watching The Beatles in their heyday, another show at the Cavern Club changed the course of Lemmy’s life and confirmed to him that rock ‘n’ roll was his calling. Unbelievably, he witnessed flamboyant American innovator Little Richard play the small venue, which he would describe as “mind-blowing”. This saw him become a Teddy Boy afterwards, and commence his rock journey.
Lemmy once recalled: “I saw Little Richard at the Cavern in Liverpool in the Fifties. That was incredible. I was living in Anglesey at the time, so you can imagine how mind-blowing that was. Pretty soon I was a bit of a Ted.” The rest is history.
